After you have planted your seed potatoes, in a good deep channel, you wait for them to show signs of growth. Once they are up about 4 inches you hill soil until only a little bit of the growth is showing. You then wait until another 4 inches or so of growth, and hill them yet again. You keep on doing this until you can't hill easily any more. Then you just wait. The growth will eventually flower, and then start to die off. Once things start to die down then you should be safe to start harvesting the potatoes.Sharon has much more experience than me, so you may want to ask her directly, but this is what we have done for many many years, and have always had a pretty good crop.~BBQ

Zone 5bSouth/Central Ontario

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BBQ wrote:After you have planted your seed potatoes, in a good deep channel, you wait for them to show signs of growth. Once they are up about 4 inches you hill soil until only a little bit of the growth is showing. You then wait until another 4 inches or so of growth, and hill them yet again. You keep on doing this until you can't hill easily any more. Then you just wait. The growth will eventually flower, and then start to die off. Once things start to die down then you should be safe to start harvesting the potatoes.Sharon has much more experience than me, so you may want to ask her directly, but this is what we have done for many many years, and have always had a pretty good crop.~BBQ

I knew you would reply and you know what you are talking about

so this I will do when it dries off. Ground is soaking wet now and more rain to come

I am assuming the hilling makes them grow and gives them more room to develope

thanks

Cheers Butterfly

Having a place to go - is a home. Having someone to love - is a family. Having both - is a blessing."--Donna Hedges

BBQ wrote:As you cover the growth with more soil, then more potatoes will develop from the stem, so the more stem you can cover the more potatoes you will get.~BBQ

Absolutely fallacious. Potatoes do not grow from the stem.

http://www.durgan.org/ShortURL/?CCZOA 18 July 2008 How Potatoes grow.
The tubers are formed in a circle, at about the same level around the seed potato. There are no shoots emanating from the stalk. Hilling is necessary, since the tubers push through the soil, and when exposed to light they turn green indicating an alkaloid called solanine, which is harmful to ingest. The eyes of potatoes also have solanine, which indicates that they should be removed prior to cooking.

Last edited by Durgan on Jul 30, 2008 4:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.